David Gard/The Star-LedgerWill Mennen, a Hunterdon County freeholder, is shown in this 2010 file photo. Today, Mennen announced he will not seek the state Assembly in a special election, despite earlier consideration.

FLEMINGTON — Hunterdon County Freeholder Will Mennen says he won’t run for the Assembly seat left vacant by Assemblyman Pete Biondi’s (R-Somerset) death last month.

Mennen, who lives just outside 16th Legislative District, said he had wanted to move into the district to take up the seat next month but it “simply was not feasible” for him and his family to make the move by January.

One of Mennen’s opponents, Bill Spadea, questioned the legitimacy of Mennen’s candidacy based on the state Constitution’s one-year district residency requirement. But Mennen’s supporters argued that a 10-year-old federal court decision had tossed out that requirement.

Mennen, for his part, said he would have legally been able to run for the seat.

“While I have lived in New Jersey my entire life … the new district boundaries placed me just a few doors outside the 16th district,” Mennen wrote in a letter to the district’s Republican committee members, who will choose Biondi’s temporary replacement. “I had hoped to continue my public service by representing the people of the 16th legislative district as a member of the New Jersey Assembly ... However, once my family began the process of finding a new family home … it became clear that such a move within the time period prescribed by law simply was not feasible for us.”

The political website PolitickerNJ.com reports that Donna Simon, a Hunterdon County Republican committeewoman from Readington Township, announced today she plans to run for the seat instead.

The other candidates are Spadea and John Saccenti,a member of the South Brunswick Board of Health and president of a company that provides law enforcement and emergency services training.